Ranking-The-Best-Disney-Movies-For-Adults
Credit: Disney+

We all know Disney Plus is the best for kids and families, but how about some titles more geared toward grown-ups? What are the best Disney Plus movies for adults?

Disney Plus is known to have over 500 available movies including childhood favorites and new family-friendly options. When making our list, we excluded the Star Wars and Marvel franchise content along with other superhero movies. As a result, you can pick from these 10 best Disney Plus movies for adults on your next movie night. After all, you’re probably already paying for it if you have children, so why not enjoy the platform yourself?

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15. Three Men and a Baby (1987)

You may be surprised to see that Disney Plus offers this throwback comedy from 1987. Based on the storyline, it’s a great option for adults to turn on when they need a laugh, especially concerning parenting. These three leading men played by Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson go from having one-night stands with women to learning how to take care of a mysterious baby left at their door.

Can you imagine three bachelors taking care of an infant? Seems cruel and unusual, but, inevitably, hilarious. Even the original trailer is just one and a half minutes of Tom Selleck trying to change a diaper and epically failing.

  • IMDb score: 6.1

14. Tron (1982)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: Walt Disney Pictures

The whole idea of simulation theory that inspired movies like The Matrix and countless other more contemporary science fiction movies got some of its roots from here. Jeff Bridges stars in 1982’s Tron as a computer programmer who gets stuck inside a computer. What a cool premise, right, especially for the early ‘80s? Yes, the effects are a little dated, but there’s something vintage and endearing about this ambitious flick.

All kinds of spin-off media resulted from this property, including an animated TV series, video games, comic books and, yes, a long-awaited sequel, Tron: Legacy in 2010. Bridges returned for it, and it was divisive but better than many remember.

  • IMDb score: 6.7

13. The Finest Hours (2016)

Based on a real-life rescue in 1952, The Finest Hours highlights the strength and perseverance of a Coast Guard crew while trying to save 30 sailors. The film takes place in February 1952 when a terrible storm struck New England, damaging an oil tanker off of the coast of Cape Cod and ripping it in half. It’s up to four Coast Guard members to save a whole crew upon a rapidly sinking vessel.

This movie is perfect for those who enjoy films based on true stories, adventure seekers, or those who like to see how far people will go to save strangers from death.

  • IMDb score: 6.7

12. West Side Story (2021)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: 20th Century Studios

Based on the stunning Broadway musical, West Side Story takes place in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1957. In the San Juan Hill neighborhood, there are two warring gangs — Riff’s Jets and Bernardo’s Puerto Rican Sharks — fighting for supremacy. The relationships are strained between the gangs, which only becomes worse when a romance develops between former Jet brawler Tony and Bernardo’s little sister María.

Sometimes a musical is the perfect way to spend a night. I know I thoroughly enjoyed Wonka, one of the more recent musicals on screen. Between the music, dancing, and character growth, there is no way to go wrong with this film.

  • IMDb score: 7.1

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11. Free Guy (2021)

A more comedic but no less romantic movie is Free Guy, where Guy is an NPC in a video game, who interacts with others in the game, going through the same chaotic and violent episode over and over. That is until he sees a new character Millie and falls in love, unlocking his AI capabilities and going against his coding.

Switching between real life and a video game, there are a lot of funny moments that make this movie so good. I also enjoy Ryan Reynolds as an actor, and he perfectly portrays Guy.

  • IMDb score: 7.1

10. Christopher Robin (2018)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: Walt Disney Pictures

If you’d rather have a more nostalgic and tear-jerking movie, I would highly recommend Christopher Robin. I loved Winnie the Pooh as a kid, and this live-action remake of my favorite character touched my heart. In the film Christopher Robin is all grown up and has a family, leaving his familiar friends behind. That all changes though when Winnie the Pooh shows up, needing help to find his friends.

Not only do we get to see a grown-up Christopher interact with Pooh’s interesting nature, but also see how he interacts with the next generation of Robins — Christopher’s little girl. This movie reminds you to not forget your childhood, and instead embrace it because it helped create who you are today.

  • IMDb score: 7.2

9. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

This next movie is a rom-com, perfect for a date night. This 90s flick stars the late Heath Ledger as Patrick and Julia Stiles as Kat, two teens at school, both with prickly and tough images. That is until Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Cameron and David Krumholtz’s Michael drag them into a teenage love story that’s both comical and endearing.

The movie is filled with cheesy moments that are guaranteed to bring smiles during date night, that’s if you lived through the 90s.

  • IMDb score: 7.3

8. Miracle (2004)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: The Walt Disney Company

In this Olympic hockey docudrama, Kurt Russell stars as Herb Brooks, the head coach of the heavy underdog USA hockey team, who defeated the powerhouse USSR in the 1980 Winter Games.

Viewers can get a sense of the grueling training the U.S. had to go through to even compete with their Cold War adversaries. Brooks was a demanding but inspiring motivator who has to go down as one of the best silver-screen sports coaches ever. Plus, Russell’s passion while filming wins the day and lifts this above what could’ve been an extremely clichéd movie that is obvious in tipping its inevitable outcome.

  • IMDb score: 7.4

READ MORE: 12 Best Patrick Swayze Movies Ranked

7. The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)

A golf movie. Sounds boring, right? I guess, but Shia LaBeouf delivers here. He carries the movie as an underdog amateur golfer whose disapproving father disparages his passion for the game. The scenes between LaBeouf and his movie dad Elias Koteas are intense. It’s the kind of weight Disney Plus movies aren’t supposed to pack for adults.

LaBeouf’s Francis Ouimet winds up competing against golf legends at the 1913 U.S. Open and it turns into a wonderful, feel-good drama. Child actor Josh Flitter plays Ouimet’s caddy and offers some great zingers and comic relief to cut the dramatic tension of the hotly competitive golf sequences.

  • IMDb score: 7.4

6. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: Touchstone Pictures

The sheer cinematic achievement of integrating live-action with animation was stunning in and of itself. Roger Rabbit’s comedic high jinks are kid-friendly enough, but there’s far more going for this film than that.

When you have a subplot based on Chinatown you’re doing something right. Legendary Doc Brown of Back to the Future fame, Christopher Lloyd, actually plays the villain here. And he’s terrifying! Legitimately menacing. Set in classic Hollywood in the 1940s with animated characters and real people coexisting, there’s such a fascinating mash-up of genres going on here. It’s got that noir vibe to it, too, an aesthetic I adore.

  • IMDb score: 7.7

5. Hidden Figures (2016)

Another true story, Hidden Figures reveals a previously unknown piece of history behind the first astronaut launch. In NASA a group of three African American women — Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson — became the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Each of them crossed all gender, race, and professional lines to succeed and to get astronaut John Glenn into and back from space safely.

Stories that were hidden in history always intrigue me, because they reveal another piece of the puzzle of our world. These women helped play an enormous part in history, but for a long time, it wasn’t talked about. Now you can see their contributions to NASA on the big screen.

  • IMDb score: 7.8

4. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: 20th Century Studios

This 1947 gem is one that any generation can appreciate. Set in New York City between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s super wholesome and deals with a man who claims to be the real Santa Claus.

Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of substance and heart to this yarn, making it one of the best Disney Plus movies for adults. Not to mention, it’s part of the history of film cinema, so you’ll learn a bit about the old movie genre while watching. We’re smart enough to know that children won’t want to sit through a black-and-white movie, but adults might just have the attention span and interest to do so.

  • IMDb score: 7.9

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3. Deadpool (2016)

You may be seeing the title Deadpool and get angry since I mentioned there were no superhero movies on this list. But, this isn’t any superhero movie, and it is definitely not for kids. One of the few rated R movies on Disney+, its rating is well-earned and is perfect for an adult movie night.

Deadpool tells the story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who gets subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, but horrible scars covering his whole body. Adopting the alter-ego Deadpool, he hunts down the man who nearly killed him in the first place.

  • IMDb score: 8.0

2. Free Solo (2018)

15 Best Disney Plus Movies For Adults
Credit: National Geographic Society

Let’s go with a wild card. This won Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, and it’s deserved.

Be warned: Free Solo is not for the faint of heart. Among Disney Plus movies, this may even scare the adults. It follows the meticulous preparations of prolific rock climber Alex Honnold. He spends multiple years charting out every single move of his ascent up El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park. The title refers to the style of climbing Honnold does to accomplish this stunning feat: scaling the entire, steep, slick wall without a harness, rope, or other equipment. All he has is a bag of chalk to help with grips and holds.

Documentaries often capture real-life drama in profound ways. Hard to imagine anything else in athletics quite this tension-filled and adrenaline-packed yet strangely serene.

  • IMDb score: 8.1

1. Hamilton (2020)

Our last selection is none other than Hamilton a musical about America in the past, blending musical elements including hip-hop, jazz, and R&B to create a memorable show about Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton’s life was not easy, and during the Revolutionary War, he was a close officer to George Washington, later becoming part of his cabinet when Washington became President.

If you want more musicals, there is nothing more popular than this one. Though I haven’t watched it yet, several of my friends swear by this film and have watched it nearly ten times now.

  • IMDb score: 8.3

Not all Disney movies are for kids, which is beneficial when the kids go to bed and you want to turn on a movie. Make sure to watch one of these best Disney Plus movies for adults, and enjoy a range of genres, periods, and styles of acting while you do.